the MDGs in Africa
30 Institutions are much more narrowly defined here as organizations that “implement rules and codes of conduct to achieve desired outcomes” .
learning and experience sharing . Among these innovations are social protection schemes, which are essential to support the vulnerable segments of the population, virtual poverty funds (VPFs), decentralized service provision, innovative funding of the social sector, etc .
Innovations for MDG 1:
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
African countries have adopted a number of in-novations or reinforced existing interventions in order to accelerate progress toward achieving MDG 1 . A number of governments have increased their support to the agricultural sector . They have ad-dressed difficulties in the agricultural input market and have reaped good results . Zambia introduced the Farmer Input Support Program (FISP) to assist its small-scale farmers . According to government estimates, 500,000 farmers are benefiting from this support . The Zambian government also expanded and intensified extension services to farmers . As a consequence, the country is anticipating a bumper maize harvest in 2010 of 2 .7 million tonnes, 48 percent above the 2009 output . Malawi began in 2006 to subsidize the distribution of chemical fertilizers and hybrid maize varieties to its farm-ers, who responded by substantially increasing output . This has had a positive impact on food prices, household incomes, and should help to reduce malnutrition .
A major development that occurred in the wake of the food crisis of 2007–2008 is the unprecedented increase in the rate, size, and number of acquisi-tions of large tracks of prime agricultural land by foreign governments, investment banks, pension funds, and other companies . This was seen by many African governments as an innovation that would enable them to expand their fiscal space by
taking advantage of rising food and commodity prices, acquiring new technologies and improv-ing infrastructure, includimprov-ing rural infrastructure . Such acquisitions were also intended to expand employment and raise agricultural productivity, thereby addressing MDG 1 . The uptake of this innovation has been staggering . Ethiopia alone has approved 815 foreign-financed agricultural projects since 2007 .31 The government of Djibouti acquired 55,000 hectares of irrigated land from the Government of Malawi in 2009 . China signed a contract with the Democratic Republic of Congo to grow 2 .8 million hectares of palm oil for bio-fuels . Madagascar and the South Korean company Daewoo came close to finalizing a lease agree-ment that would have included nearly half of the country’s arable land .32 Tunisia recently adopted a decision to lease its agricultural land to foreign investors . According to a recent report published by the FAO, IIED and IFAD,33 2 .49 million hectares of land were allocated to foreign investors in five African countries – Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, and The Sudan – between 2004 and 2009 . Although this innovation presents opportunities for accelerating progress on MDG 1, it has also raised concerns about its impact on poor people, who are at risk of losing access to and control of land on which they depend, especially as they have no property rights over such land .34
A major innovation in some countries is the Virtual Poverty Fund (VPF) . Nigeria and Uganda, for ex-ample, have VPFs designed to track MDG-specific
31 http://www .taipeitimes .com/News/editorials/ar-chives/2010/03/12/2003467789 .
32 See von Braun and Meizen-Dick (2009) . 33 Cotula et al . (2009) .
34 This is a key argument for advocacy for the legal empow-erment of the poor .
expenditure . In Nigeria, the VPF, otherwise known as the Debt Relief Gain (DRG), was created using the USD 18 billion debt relief that the country had negotiated with the Paris Club in 2005 . This has enabled the country to dedicate USD 1 billion annually to the achievement of the MDGs, focusing on health, education, water and sanitation, environment, energy, housing, women’s empowerment, HIV/AIDS, and social safety nets . Lesotho, in addition to public works programs on soil and water conservation and household food security, also provides pensions to senior citizens aged 70 years old or above at a monthly stipend that started at M150 (maloti) per person but since April 2009 has risen to M300 (about USD 40) . Swaziland introduced a bursary scheme for orphaned and vulnerable children, thus improving the school enrollment rate for this underprivileged segment . Ghana’s social intervention programs, such as the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), Capita-tion Grant, fertilizer subsidy to smallholders, and the school feeding and nutritional sup-plementary initiatives, are primarily targeted at productivity enhancement . The Central African Republic’s Social Insurance Scheme provides the following: old age pensions for men at age 55 and women at age 50; a disability pension; a survivor pension; sickness and maternity; and a family allowance for employees with one or more children .
Innovations for MDG 2:
Achieve universal primary education
Three key institutional innovations drive the substantial progress made by many African coun-tries on MDG 2: namely, increased resources, alternative educational service models, and the adoption of decentralized systems . Coupled
with a growing emphasis by governments on the centrality of education to the development process, there has been a steady increase in the allocation of public resources to the sector in many countries .
Further, countries such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, and The Gambia have adopted non-traditional models of primary education delivery to boost primary enrollment, educational parity, and adult literacy . Using escrow accounts or spe-cial funds, such as the Education Tax Fund in Nigeria and the Girls’ Education Trust Fund in The Gambia, these countries have facilitated access to schooling for a large number of chil-dren in coastal, pastoral, semi-pastoral and some remote areas beyond the reach of the formal school system . Further, various funds have helped to bridge education financing gaps in many states . Countries like Rwanda have resorted to the intensive use of facilities and teachers through double shifts for lower-grade pupils to cope with a demand that was higher than the rate of expansion .
Many countries have also launched compulsory and free universal primary/basic education (e .g ., Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Namibia, Uganda, and Mauritius) and comple-mented these with additional policies such as School Feeding Programs . Ethiopia introduced in 2005 a productive safety net program, spe-cifically targeting food-insecure and asset-poor households to increase enrollment rates for this group, and to extend the months they spend in school and the time they accord to studies at home . Burkina Faso introduced its BRIGHT (Burkinabe Responses to Improve Girls’ Chanc-es to Succeed) program in 2005, and in 2009
launched the second phase of the program . BRIGHT provides daily meals for all children and take-home rations for girls, to reduce the time they spend on household chores and increase the time they allocate to studies at home . Innovations for MDG 3:
Promote gender equality and empower women Political commitment, cultural factors, and advo-cacy are driving forces to attain MDG 3 on gender empowerment . Political commitment to national gender policies has contributed to appreciable progress on gender parity in education and in-creased women’s participation in decision-making processes (in Rwanda, the Seychelles, Swaziland, and South Africa) . Explicit recognition of women’s right to land in Tanzania and affirmative actions such as direct land allocation to female-headed households combined with credit assistance to develop such lands in Tanzania, Zambia, and Eritrea have provided some impetus to women’s rights and active participation in decision-making processes . A few countries have promulgated legislation dealing with property and inheritance rights of HIV/AIDS orphans and equal inheritance rights for widows/widowers on a country-wide basis (Kenya) .35
Innovations for MDGs 4, 5, and 6:
Improving health (reducing child and maternal mortality rates and combating HIV, AIDS, malaria, and other major diseases)
The health MDGs are proving to be the most challenging in Africa . Evidence suggests that countries that demonstrate strong collaboration among government, non-state actors (private
sector and CSOs), and development partners tend to make faster progress on MDGs 4, 5, and 6 . For example, São Tomé and Príncipe, the Seychelles, Malawi, Eritrea, and Mauritius leveraged their success through strong collabora-tion with development partners and committed political leadership . An integrated sector-wide approach, with clearly demarcated roles and responsibilities for each actor, has innovatively and advantageously positioned these countries vis-à-vis the health MDGs . Eritrea and São Tomé and Príncipe as a consequence recorded the fastest reduction in the infant mortality rate in the region .36 Mali, Togo, and Senegal are on track with respect to the HIV/AIDS target, due to firm leadership, a coordinated multisectoral approach, a strong emphasis on building the capacity of the public sector and CSOs, increased sensitization of the population, the introduc-tion of voluntary anonymous testing and free antiretroviral therapy (ART), and heightened mobilization of international support .
Innovations for MDG 7:
Ensuring environmental sustainability
Performance on MDG 7 on environmental sus-tainability is highly uneven across the continent, although limited documentation of good practice does exist . Mauritius offers a very good example for several targets of Goal 7, with substantial re-ductions in carbon emissions, and almost universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation . In
35 See Augustinus and Deininger (2005) for more informa-tion on innovainforma-tions about women’s land ownership in Africa .
36 This was possible in Eritrea through increased access to healthcare services by investing in the reconstruction of destroyed facilities, training for health workers, and increased provision of drugs and equipment, as well as proactive and maximum coverage of immunization against the major killer diseases (UNDP Background document on Eritrea, 2010) .
Ghana and Angola, innovative and locally driven pilot projects on safe water and sanitation aim to increase access to these basic facilities in deprived areas .
A number of countries are also applying inno-vative policies to provide low-cost housing to the poor (e .g ., Namibia and South Africa) . Land management is receiving some attention in a number of countries . Decentralized land man-agement in Ethiopia has allowed a more flexible approach and a transfer of skills to the local level . Housing schemes for slum dwellers in Namibia is producing tangible benefits for historically disadvantaged groups . Similarly, the partner-ship between New Rest (an informal settlement in Cape Town) and the City of Cape Town in South Africa uses a phased approach to land ownership and neighborhood management . The scheme is considered to be user-friendly, flexible, affordable, and accommodates local land tenure practices while meeting the needs of the formal system (Kingwell et al ., 2006) . However, issues relating to carbon emissions are yet to receive commensurate attention .